What is an Invisible Character Detector?
Text that “looks identical but doesn’t match” almost always contains invisible Unicode: zero-width spaces from web copies, BOMs from files, non-breaking spaces from word processors, even bidi controls used in spoofing.
The scanner names each invisible character found with its Unicode codepoint and count, and produces a cleaned copy.
How to use the Invisible Character Detector
- Paste the suspicious text.
- Click Scan.
- Review what was found and copy the cleaned text.
Frequently asked questions
Where do these characters come from?
Copying from web pages and PDFs, word processors substituting typographic spaces, and some AI/text tools inserting zero-width markers.
Why do they break things?
“admin” with a zero-width space is a different string from “admin” — lookups, comparisons and code fail while looking correct.
Are any of them legitimate?
Yes — non-breaking spaces and joiners have real typographic uses. The problem is when they arrive uninvited into identifiers and data.
What are bidi controls?
Characters that flip text direction — abused in “Trojan Source” attacks to make code render differently than it executes. Worth detecting.